? about bad barrel blank

Was this factory ammo? handloads? was the stock bedded? You said it might have been the scope and then replaced it but never tried it again.... Maybe it was the scope maybe it wasn't. If it was factory ammo what bullet? did you have enough twist rate for the bullet or just marginal stability? there are a lot of things that come into play and I'm just guessing not knowing all that you have used or tried.

My only advice for your chambering setup is move as close to the head stock as you can with the chamber end of the barrel. When I first started chambering my own barrels I started with twin spiders like you have setup. What I found out for myself was I was bending & torqueing the barrel into place with those jacking bolts. The setup was not stress free and gave me issues in the beginning. Funny thing was all the barrels I chambered with that setup shot really well, I just learned and evolved from there. I don't dial in the muzzle end anymore. I only worry about the chamber end of the barrel and having everything lined up in perfect alignment with the bore where the reamer is going to cut. I want the reamer & throat to be aligned with the bore and don't worry about what the muzzle end of the barrel is doing. Then I time the muzzle to the 12 o'clock position.
 
I have built a LOT of rifles with Wilson barrels and can tell you they have been very good quality and very accurate. I would have someone that knows lathes check yours out, then verify how you put it together. As you know, there are growing pains that come with machining barrels and a lot that can go wrong in the setup.
1. Did you verify tailstock alignment?
2. How did you do the crown?
Feel free to call me if it helps.
 
There have been many good points posted, And the one about the lathe is probably the best. Small lathes have many problems doing precision work because of tolerances, strength, size and flex/deflection. It took me 3 lathes and many hours of cutting and measuring to get the precision I wanted. Once I bought a lathe with all the things I felt I needed and with the strength and spindle speeds, things became much easier and consistent precision was achievable. I commend you on the job you did with what you have, But one of the things I have learned is that to do precision gunsmithing you need precision tools made for the job.

In gunsmithing there are no short cuts and experience means everything. Set up is also very important and a leave no stone unturned attitude is a must.

A bad barrel doesn't help but you will find one on occasion no matter who makes it. I recently purchased a barrel that was Hi end and the cut rifling was very bad and had I looked at it closely I would have caught it before I chambered it. They would not replace it even though It was easy to see the problem so I ate it and bought the friend a new barrel and replaced it free. (It was my fault for not catching it) Over the years I have developed a short list of barrels I won't build on because of there quality and customer service. I also stay away from bargain buys because of the chance of a bad barrel. (It is best to spend the money up front and buy a premium
barrel) the odds are better and the results are not as much of a gamble.

Good luck, hope it all works out.

J E CUSTOM
 
Imo, your runout of .001x isn't bad. I built a 300 rum for testing in the 3 jaw (gasp!) just to see how it would shoot. I threw it from across the shop into the lathe and it landed in the 3 jaw with .007" runout. Still shot sub moa and we took it to 1400 yards. I thought it was funny because I am a little ocd about dialing in with my .0001 indicators. Point is, doubt it was the runout
 
Okay, there are a lot of questions that I'll try to address. The rifle was shot with factory ammo, 139 grain Hornady sst. I can not and do not reload due to the fact that I live in NYC, need I say more. The rifle was shot off of a lead sled and I posted the 25 yard target to show that I shot once and moved the scope and it seemed to track fine. Yes, I could have taken a few more shots, but I've never had any issues like this sighting in. The stock is not bedded and it's the Hogue stock with the full length bedding block. I only dialed in the chamber end and used both spiders to do that. Unfortunately I can not get any closer to the headstock while chambering due to the small spindle bore of only .750". If I remember correctly, the twist rate was 1-8. My tailstock alignment was adjusted to the best of my ability with a coaxial indicator. I remember it wasn't perfect, that's why I used a floating reamer holder. I know there are a lot of variables here, but I'm 52 years old and I know when I rifle isn't shooting correctly. I really don't feel I don't have enough lathe for what I'm trying to do. I read an article once written by retired gunsmith Les Brooks, retired gunsmith. It's titled Rifle barrel fitting 7x12 mini lathe. Unfortunately, I can't locate the article. I have it as an email and will try to post it. The only reason I blamed the barrel is because I sent it out to someone that knows a lot more than me about machining and gunsmith work. This was his response to me:

Here is what I think. Chamber to bore run out is less than .0015. About .0012-.0013 best I can tell. Pretty good I think. OD run out to bore at the muzzle is .0055-.006. Not so great. My Green Mountain AR barrels are less than .002 in the full length. Out of a 100 barrels, most are better than that. OD run out to chamber is .001-.0012. OD run out in the middle of the barrel is .0125. Bad. So either you really poured on the Cerakote at the muzzle and the middle of the barrel, exactly in line with each other, or the barrel is flawed. My guess is that maybe the barrel was not stress relieved properly and when the OD was profiled, whether you did it or someone else, it went banana. That would account for what you are experiencing. I am not a barrel expert but everything I have read is that you do not want more than .003 wall thickness variation, even if the bore is straight. If it is too much, when the barrel heats up, it will slowly start to curve. I do not have a full length gauge rod to check a curved bore. Very few do. Did you profile the OD or was it already done? Did you cut the threads? great job if you did.

this too:
Run out at the muzzle could be fixed. That much run out in the middle of the barrel is a problem. If you put the range rod in the muzzle, and the reamer in the chamber, between centers it is way out in the middle. Hard to believe that with their CNC lathes, they would have been that far off. .003-.005 maybe but not that much.
 
I would double check the crown with a bore cam/scope or magnifying glass first. Clean out all copper. Check that lug is making full/decent contact with stock. Torque action bolts. Switch ammo to another brand & weight.

If that fails to produce then index the barrel curvature to 12:00 (or 6:00). This is assuming you still have the reamer finish by hand without the lathe to correct the headspace.

Hopefully the clocking will help string your shots vertically when heating if that becomes a problem.

Question: why no handloading in NYC? That would stink.
 
I wish you would have recorded your machining. Was the reamer holder swirling or moving at all? You mentioned dialing in the bore before chambering, but did you say you couldn't dial in the bore at the muzzle end? Sorry you're going thru this.
 
I'm very confused about your setup.
You say you dialed in the bore, but I see the chambering end of the barrel in the steady with the reamer in your first picture.

Did you chamber in the steady, or at the headstock?
There's no "dialing in" when chambering in the steady.
 
There are strict fire codes in NYC and we are only allowed to have a total of 200 rounds of ammunition, that's not per caliber, that's total. We can not have powder in NYC either, they will not even ship it here. Okay, reamer holder wasn't swirling, but you could see slight movement which I assumed was the reamer following the bore. As far as the muzzle end is concerned, I set the barrel back in the lathe with the muzzle end in the spider and indicated the barrel back in off the range rod. The chamber end was in the spider and I indicated off the range rod until it was running as true as I could get it. I then made a truing cut on the barrel for the steady rest to ride on. I added the steady rest for more stability while I chambered the barrel. I double checked that everything was running just as true as it was before I added the steady rest. So at this point, no matter what way I chambered the barrel, it ended up with .0012" of runout. Is this enough to make the barrel shoot that bad? I have a video of how I used to thread a barrel for a brake before I made the spider, I'll try to post it.
 

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Fired brass is fine and chambers and extracts without a problem. My friend that checked the barrel for me said the chamber is in spec.
 

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